A service provider of computing, storage, and/or network services may operate one or more facilities, such as data centers, that include multiple networking devices. Some networking devices included in the facilities may include built-in encryption capabilities, while other networking devices may not include such encryption capabilities.
Customers of a service provider that operates computing facilities that include at least some networking devices without built-in encryption capabilities may request that the service provider offer services to the customers that include encrypted communications. In order to provide such services, the service provider may be required to replace networking devices without built-in encryption capabilities with new networking devices that include built-in encryption capabilities. Some provider networks may include multiple networking devices located in multiple facilities so that upgrading the service provider's networking devices with new networking devices may prove costly, labor intensive, and may impact the provider network's ability to process customer network traffic while performing the upgrade.
Also, as encryption and networking technology evolve, encryption hardware built into networking devices may become outdated and/or obsolete. In order to upgrade to newer encryption hardware, networking devices with built-in encryption capabilities may be required to be replaced with new networking devices. Such upgrades may also be costly, labor intensive, and disruptive of operations of a provider network.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning “having the potential to”), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning “must”). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean “including, but not limited to.”